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Now that the divorce was final, she could love him from a distance. And focus instead on loving the people directly in her life, with the kind of love with which God loved her.
Chapter 14
Nora sat in churchwith her arms crossed over her chest. Her dad had forced her to go that morning. She hadn’t wanted to, but he hadn’t given her a choice. It was America. She was supposed to be free to do whatever she wanted to, not forced to have religion crammed down her throat she didn’t want to. Her mom didn’t make her go to church.
Dad was just being a jerk. He knew she wanted her mom and him to be a family, and he was just deliberately not doing it because he hated her.
She could see that now.
She didn’t pay any attention to the service. While she normally liked church, she was mad because her dad made her go, so she didn’t pay attention, and when it was over, she ran to her nana.
At least someone around there appreciated her. She didn’t even have to say anything, but as she approached, Nana opened her arms wide, and Nora stepped into them, loving the cinnamon and vanilla scent that always clung to her and burying her head in her shoulder. For some reason, feeling her arms squeeze her tight made her want to cry.
Why did life have to be so hard? Why couldn’t her parents just get along? Why couldn’t they just be a family?
Her mom finally got away from the man she was living with. Nora didn’t even call him her stepdad. He didn’t like her. He had a kid of his own that visited on the weekends sometimes, and that’s who he really liked. Nora was just in the way.
“You’re coming home with me, aren’t you?” Nana said, pulling back a little bit to look down into her eyes.
She nodded belligerently, even though she liked Nana.
“What’s the matter, Nora? Is there something wrong?”
“No.”
She saw her new friends, Scarlett and Penelope, but she just waved to them and didn’t go over and talk to them. But they walked over to them.
“Is it okay with you if Scarlett and Penelope eat with us?” Nana asked.
Nora wanted to say no, just because every answer that came out of her mouth wanted to be a no right now, but she liked Scarlett and Penelope.
“Are we having hot dogs in the backyard?” she asked.
“We can if you want to. I have some in the refrigerator, and I figured that we’d do it at some point. That’s kind of our thing, isn’t it?” Nana smiled and winked at her.
It was their thing. Usually the old oak tree in the yard lost a couple of branches over the winter, and her dad would cut them up and stack them along the fence. Nana had a few stones that formed a circle, and they put camp chairs around it and called it a fire pit.
